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This is the third video in our 10-part #TalkTraffic video series. See Part 1 | Part 2

Responses to trafficking involve important human rights issues. Solutions to trafficking that are rooted in human rights respect the dignity and self-determination of the person who may be trafficked. Learn more about what it means to approach trafficking through this lens.

What You Need To Know

It’s absolutely crucial to respond to trafficking using a human rights approach. This means:

Respecting the dignity, self-determination, and voice of the person who may be a victim or survivor.

Creating an environment where the person at risk is able to make his or her own decisions about the steps he or she wants to take in addressing the situation.

Not making assumptions about whether a situation actually involves coercion and trafficking, but instead asking a person you think may be trafficked what kind of help he or she wants and needs.

At times, people feel a strong emotional response when they hear about trafficking, and they want to rush in and try to “rescue” the person they think may be a victim.

The problem with this “rescuer” mentality is it takes the focus away from the survivor and puts it on the so-called “rescuer” and his or her point of view.

This has a negative consequence: It sidelines the voices of survivors and their ability to make their own decisions and reclaim their own voice, dignity, and ability to move forward in life.

If you see a situation that might involve trafficking, call a qualified and trusted organization that works with trafficking survivors and they can help foster a human rights approach and expertly navigate the possibilities for helping a person at risk.

Arrest is never an appropriate way to try to help someone who may be a trafficking survivor.

Arresting people who may be trafficked only drives them further into vulnerable situations.

Arrests create trauma, chaos, and unintended consequences in a person’s life (for example, affecting their family, children, and co-workers.)

Arrest also adds an additional layer of complex legal consequences into that person’s already complicated and difficult situation.

This is the second video in our 10-part #TalkTraffic video series. See the first video here.

When a person is trafficked, she or he experiences some type of force, fraud, or coercion in work, usually in low-wage industries. It’s important to understand what trafficking looks like, so we can give people the help they need and want. Learn more about the dynamics of trafficking in persons.

What You Need To Know

Trafficking can include a wide range of experiences. It’s important to recognize the different dynamics, so we can properly recognize it and work with survivors to create the best solutions.

Trafficking happens most often in low-wage industries like construction, domestic work, sex work, agriculture, and restaurants.

People particularly at risk for being trafficked include recent immigrants; homeless, street-involved, and LGBTQ youth; and people in desperate economic circumstances.

Trafficking involves people living and working in a climate of fear. This means:

Most countries, states within the United States, and the United Nations all have their own legal definitions of trafficking.

The definitions vary, but they are consistent in noting trafficking involves:

Exploitation of people involved in many different kinds of labor, including sex work and domestic work; and

The use of force, fraud, or coercion in making people work.

Trafficking gets attention because it can be horrific and it lends itself to upsetting visual images. But there’s a wide range of abuses people experience in their work — sometimes these involve trafficking and sometimes they don’t. And we still need to address this wide range of abuses in order to ensure opportunity, dignity, and human rights for all people.

We’re thrilled to officially announce our #TalkTraffic project — a 10-part video series we’re launching to bring about more awareness to the effort to end trafficking. In this first video, we introduce NYATN and explain our approach to the work that we do. Our featured experts — lawyers, social workers, and policy advocates — take on trafficking from different disciplines, and offer up a variety of insights on ways to engage and solve this urgent and important human rights issue.

What You Need To Know

Goals of anti-trafficking work include:

Supporting the dignity and self-determination of survivors.

Giving survivors the help they need to reclaim their voice and their lives.

Preventing and ending trafficking.

It takes a lot of different kinds of expertise and knowledge to give trafficking survivors the help they want and need:

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